OFFICIAL 2020 Free Dining WATCH Thread - FREE DINING No Longer Available. First Post Updated with Details

[scrappinginontario]

There are no reliable rumours out about what will be required if FD drops

 

[B Rehm]

The 2019 Free Dining (FD) offer dropped Jan 2, 2019 (3 1/2 months earlier than in the past) so people have started asking about the possibility of a Free Dining 2020 offer. We don't know what will happen but let's watch together!

What we do know is that Free Dining for 2020 was offered as a BounceBack offer to guests staying at a Disney Resort from Aug 1 - October 31, 2019. Details of that offer (which is NO LONGER AVAILABLE) were:

• Offer: Free QSDP for values and moderates and regular DDP for deluxes/deluxe villas
  • Must check *in*within the following dates in 2020:
    • May 26 - June 2, 2020
    • June 26 - September 12, 2020
    • December 9 - December 24, 2020
  • Must stay a minimum of 4 nights
  • Must purchase a package with a minimum of a 4-day park hopper for every person above the age of 2 on the reservation.
  • This offer was available to be booked from August 1, 2019 - October 31, 2019.
  • Value & Moderate bookings get free QS dining plan (QSDP).
  • Deluxe & Deluxe Villa bookings get free regular dining plan (DDP).
  • You can pay the difference to upgrade your plan. For example, the cost to upgrade from QSDP to DDP per night, for each adult, is $23 and $4.50 for children
  • This is a package promo. As such if you check-in during an eligible date, you receive FD for your entire stay.
  • Excludes - All Star Movies, French Quarter, Bay Lake, Little Mermaid rooms, Grand Floridian Villas
  • If you want to book a Free Dining BounceBack, and you already have a ticket or AP, you will have to purchase a minimum of a 4-day PH.

Historically the General Public FD offer is similar but not identical to the BounceBack FD offer.

There is no guarantee that Disney will even offer FD but, the fact that it was offered as a BB earlier this year gives much hope!

Here's hoping we may hear about something as early as January 2020 or, if they go back to previous release dates, it could be offered starting late April/early May.

So, who's ready to wait?

 

[B Rehm]

Following this thread

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Me. I'm hoping for early Dec next year. But it seemed that they usually do the whole month of Sept. I can only do Dec because my brother, with whom I'm going, is going to Aulani next Sept. I really miss Christmas and hope to go back. This will be the first time going and staying at a Value but getting the full dining plan.

 

[leahgoogle]

Hoping for September 2020!

 

[disneyjr77]

Any rumors about a January drop yet?

 

[Rusty2rules]

Any rumors about a January drop yet?

The prevailing rumor is January 2nd. I've seen that several places. Fingers crossed.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Any rumors about a January drop yet?

No and rumours of drops seem to be a thing of the past. Disney keeps things pretty tight and suddenly offers are dropped. Personally I’m not planning on rumours. Will just check closely until the next offer drops.

 

[Rusty2rules]

No and rumours of drops seem to be a thing of the past. Disney keeps things pretty tight and suddenly offers are dropped. Personally I’m not planning on rumours. Will just check closely until the next offer drops.

Agreed. I've already got my reservations made for next fall. If an offer drops that my trip qualifies for, great! If not, I'm going anyways. I've got a co-worker who's waiting to see if they offer FD for the fall before he makes reservations. I dunno (shrugging shoulders). The way I look at it, if that offer is going to make or break your trip, you probably shouldn't be going anyway. It would be great if they drop an offer and I qualify for it. But, if not, oh well.

Edit: Having said that, I hope Disney doesn't see that comment. LOL

 

[disneyjr77]

No and rumours of drops seem to be a thing of the past. Disney keeps things pretty tight and suddenly offers are dropped. Personally I’m not planning on rumours. Will just check closely until the next offer drops.

I think the rumors make it more exciting lol what i won't miss is the loss of sleep on the rumored early morning drops!

We're the same as @Rusty2rules, our trip is already booked and we're going either way since it's our honeymoon...fingers are crossed though

 

[5kidsmommy]

Agreed. I've already got my reservations made for next fall. If an offer drops that my trip qualifies for, great! If not, I'm going anyways. I've got a co-worker who's waiting to see if they offer FD for the fall before he makes reservations. I dunno (shrugging shoulders). The way I look at it, if that offer is going to make or break your trip, you probably shouldn't be going anyway. It would be great if they drop an offer and I qualify for it. But, if not, oh well.

Edit: Having said that, I hope Disney doesn't see that comment. LOL

Our reservation is already made. It'll change though most likely because we booked a quick February trip and I'll book a bounceback. No matter what we are going in September 2020, discount or no discount.

 

[LaDonna]

I dunno (shrugging shoulders). The way I look at it, if that offer is going to make or break your trip, you probably shouldn't be going anyway. It would be great if they drop an offer and I qualify for it. But, if not, oh well.

for our family of 5 with our vacation budget it’s the only way we can afford to stay onsite.......food for an entire 7 days for 5 people at Disney prices definitely would break our budget. Actually breaks our budget a little even before free dining, but we get creative thru out they year and save for the extra expense. If no free dining we would have to stay off site.

 

[Rusty2rules]

for our family of 5 with our vacation budget it’s the only way we can afford to stay onsite.......food for an entire 7 days for 5 people at Disney prices definitely would break our budget. Actually breaks our budget a little even before free dining, but we get creative thru out they year and save for the extra expense. If no free dining we would have to stay off site.

Yes, I can see where FD for five mouths might make a tiny bit of difference in the budget. LOL For me, it's just my son and I, so it's not a big deal. I'll take it if they offer it, though. LOL

Off topic a little, it's always interested me about staying off site. Granted, I haven't looked at it a lot, but I've never been able to see that big of a price difference between on site and off when researching. For five people, I can see it. There aren't very many Disney resorts that can accommodate that many. But I see ppl talking about off site all the time. Paying for parking at the parks is an added expense, unless you take some kind of hotel shuttle, I guess. But I don't like that loss of control, even compared to the Disney busing system. Then you add in the "free" perks of being able to attend rope drop and make your fastpass reservations 30 days earlier (can you making dining reservations earlier also?). I must not be seeing something. I know when my sons junior high went on a trip there we stayed off site at some crappy Ramada Inn and had to take buses every where. Kinda sucked. Lost all of the Disney "magic". We still had fun, it just wasn't the same, though.

 

[Elsaalltheway]

Well was thinking about it last night, and it doesn't make sense for me or my brother to do the free dining. We already have passes. Well I have one through next year. He would have to renew. And we have DVC so there would be no cost there. We will just get the cup since we are not big snackers and we couldn't think of any place we really need to go. We don't drink. So we will just book at AKL and then do food OOP. Should only be about 300 max OOP, and tips alone 70 and we would barely spend what it would cost to upgrade from the QS to the regular dining plan. I hope everybody gets what they want.

 

[Elsaalltheway]

for our family of 5 with our vacation budget it’s the only way we can afford to stay onsite.......food for an entire 7 days for 5 people at Disney prices definitely would break our budget. Actually breaks our budget a little even before free dining, but we get creative thru out they year and save for the extra expense. If no free dining we would have to stay off site.

Have you also thought of looking into renting points for DVC studios that sleep five?

 

[LaDonna]

Yes, I can see where FD for five mouths might make a tiny bit of difference in the budget. LOL For me, it's just my son and I, so it's not a big deal. I'll take it if they offer it, though. LOL

Off topic a little, it's always interested me about staying off site. Granted, I haven't looked at it a lot, but I've never been able to see that big of a price difference between on site and off when researching. For five people, I can see it. There aren't very many Disney resorts that can accommodate that many. But I see ppl talking about off site all the time. Paying for parking at the parks is an added expense, unless you take some kind of hotel shuttle, I guess. But I don't like that loss of control, even compared to the Disney busing system. Then you add in the "free" perks of being able to attend rope drop and make your fastpass reservations 30 days earlier (can you making dining reservations earlier also?). I must not be seeing something. I know when my sons junior high went on a trip there we stayed off site at some crappy Ramada Inn and had to take buses every where. Kinda sucked. Lost all of the Disney "magic". We still had fun, it just wasn't the same, though.

I agree with staying offsite............when doing the math when our family was smaller the saving for us anyways wasn’t worth giving up the perks and Disney immersion

For our next trip, before food cost, it was a $2000 difference soooo that could be quite a bit savings......still my dh would rather try and save up that extra and stay on site he loves it that much, the convenience too! Me I love the money more haha but hey he is the one that makes the money so I won’t say no to the splurge. We are lucky that dh can gets OT more than he used to......but not everyone so lucky. Some have tighter budgets than others. I am grateful and so thankful when we do get to go. I remember our first trip 19 years ago??? We brought In pbj sandwiches and chips, stayed offsite with a huge breakfast buffet ate one dinner in park but mostly grabbed something cheap when we got back to hotel

 

[LaDonna]

Have you also thought of looking into renting points for DVC studios that sleep five?

actually it’s been a long time since looking Into that option...thanks for the reminder

 

[marmalade]

Agreed. I've already got my reservations made for next fall. If an offer drops that my trip qualifies for, great! If not, I'm going anyways. I've got a co-worker who's waiting to see if they offer FD for the fall before he makes reservations. I dunno (shrugging shoulders). The way I look at it, if that offer is going to make or break your trip, you probably shouldn't be going anyway. It would be great if they drop an offer and I qualify for it. But, if not, oh well.

Edit: Having said that, I hope Disney doesn't see that comment. LOL

We don't have a trip planned but may book one based on if and when FD is offered. We book based on the deals, not necessarily on when we want to go. I can see where your coworker is coming from.

 

[Rusty2rules]

I agree with staying offsite............when doing the math when our family was smaller the saving for us anyways wasn’t worth giving up the perks and Disney immersion

For our next trip, before food cost, it was a $2000 difference soooo that could be quite a bit savings......still my dh would rather try and save up that extra and stay on site he loves it that much, the convenience too! Me I love the money more haha but hey he is the one that makes the money so I won’t say no to the splurge. We are lucky that dh can gets OT more than he used to......but not everyone so lucky. Some have tighter budgets than others. I am grateful and so thankful when we do get to go. I remember our first trip 19 years ago??? We brought In pbj sandwiches and chips, stayed offsite with a huge breakfast buffet ate one dinner in park but mostly grabbed something cheap when we got back to hotel

TWO GRAND?! Yeah, for that I'll stay offsite. LOL Like I said, I've never been able to find anything like that. Well, without staying somewhere that I felt like I needed to get up in the middle of the night and make sure my car is still there. LOL But, also as I said before, I've never really looked that hard. I, too, like the immersion of being in the Disney "magic" all the time.

 

[Rusty2rules]

We don't have a trip planned but may book one based on if and when FD is offered. We book based on the deals, not necessarily on when we want to go. I can see where your coworker is coming from.

I get that. I'm a "bargain shopper", too. I mean, I went to Vegas on a whim a couple of years ago just because it was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up. But I figure Disney is Disney. I'm going to break out the pocket book either way. If there's a secret to finding a really good deal to Disney, I'd love to hear it! Like, a really good deal, not just FD.

As far as my co-worker, he's the same situation as me. It would be just him and his kid. I keep egging him on, dude, pull the trigger! LOL